Qualitative Research Support 

What is a Focus Group

A focus group is a qualitative research method that brings together a small group of people to discuss and share their perceptions, opinions, feelings, and insights on a particular topic of interest that cannot be easily answered by yes and no questions.  

Role of a Moderator

The focus groups are led by a moderator who asks pre-determined questions that are designed to foster in-depth discussion. The moderator strives to engage all members of the group to assure a diverse representation of thought, which enhances generalizability of the resulting data. 

Sample

Focus groups, conducted by IR, generally have 5 to 8 participants within each group. This enhances the opportunity for all members to engage and to participate in an in-depth discussion.  This size group also helps the moderator to explore more completely each of the planned topics. The demographics of the group can be diverse or a stratified sample, the latter is preferred by IR.  A sample that is stratified according to role, race, ethnicity, gender, or other demographic creates a group of participants who have similar experiences and background. Stratification also offers an opportunity to provide a supportive environment, thus forming a synergy to encourage dialogue. 

Topic Development

Good preparation and planning are required in the development of the protocol for focus group discussions. The protocol is generally developed with strong input from those who have requested the project in collaboration with the IR researchers who provide their knowledge of qualitative methods.  This is the beginning of a process that assures the protocol will have the highest odds of satisfying the questions and needs that led to the request for the project. Open-ended questions are used to encourage discussions and explore topics in-depth. Questions are designed to be semi-structured to allow for flexibility to explore areas that each group might reveal in situ that are pertinent to the topic of interest. 

Data and Analysis

The focus groups should be recorded to assure an accurate accounting of the discussions, and transcripts are produced from recordings.  All data is scrubbed of identifiers and information is anonymized to the extent possible by using ID#s. The data is ordered and categorized using coding techniques specific to qualitative research methods. This “sorting process” leads to observations and findings of common perceptions and opinions expressed by participants. 

Report of Findings

A written summary of the focus groups would be provided to the client. This summary would offer the collated themes and patterns that emerged in the analysis and provide insights into the thoughts of the participants. IR researchers would summarize the respondents’ comments using illustrative examples. We would not interpret findings, rather we would provide summary data that could be used to do so. 

Confidentiality

The researchers always strive to respect the confidentiality of the participants and will not share any information that might be construed as identifying.